‘PL 110-229 asks US citizens to choose between country and family’

Aside from the uncertainty and economic problems caused by the implementation of the Consolidated Natural Resources Act of 2008, Public Law 110-229 is also causing U.S. citizens to choose between their country and family, according to CNMI Delegate Gregorio Kilili C. Sablan.

In his opening statement early this morning to the House Subcommittee on Fisheries, Wildlife, Oceans and Insular Affairs in Washington, D.C., Sablan said a good example of how the CNRA will separate families will be offered by one of the witnesses at the public hearing, Hazel Doctor.

He said that Doctor is a citizen of the U.S. who has been “whipsawed” by this law.

Doctor, the daughter of contract workers from the Philippines, was born in the CNMI and has lived here all her life.

Sablan said that Doctor’s parents have lived in the Commonwealth for over 20 years. However, P.L. 110-229 will require them to leave, he said, a requirement that Congress did not take into account for U.S. citizens like Doctor.

“They will have to choose between staying in the only home they have ever known or leaving with their parents to live in a place they have never known. Let me say that again because it is important: Public Law 110-229 is asking U.S. citizens to choose between their country and their families. That’s wrong,” he said.

Sablan contends that H.R. 1466 would fix the problem, keep families together, and keep “Americans in America.”

He then emphasized several points, knowing that H.R. 1466 will be criticized and because immigration is a “hot-button” issue.

First, Sablan said, individuals covered in H.R. 1466 are not immigrants. “They did not cross over the U.S. immigration border. Rather Public Law 110-229 extended the border over them. So they are not and should not be part of the national immigration debate.”

Second, he said his bill has nothing to do with amnesty because amnesty is for illegals.

“H.R. 1466 covers people who were legally admitted under the laws of the Northern Mariana Islands. To qualify under H.R. 1466 individuals must still be in lawful status and in full compliance with the standards of the Immigration and Nationality Act.”

Third, Sablan said his bill provides no new social benefits and adds no new societal costs. In fact, by stabilizing the population and the workforce, he said H.R. 1466 will have a positive economic effect.

Senate President Paul A. Manglona supported Sablan’s bill in a written testimony to the subcommittee early this morning, albeit seeking some amendments.

Manglona said H.R. 1466 should incorporate the CNMI Senate’s recommendations that called for aliens residing illegally in the Commonwealth for 10 years on the date the CNRA was implemented to be given status similar to citizens of Freely Associated States.

He also wants to require parents of U.S. citizens that will be extended status by H.R. 1466 to have lived in the CNMI at least five years prior to May 8, 2008, before they could receive “CNMI-only” status.

Opposition

In his testimony to the subcommittee, Gov. Benigno R. Fitial said he opposes the bill because it was drafted by persons without any expertise in immigration law or understanding of the Commonwealth’s economy.

He said H.R. 1466, and other bills dealing with immigration in the insular areas should be handled by the appropriate subcommittee of the House Judiciary Committee.

Fitial is also against Sablan’s bill because it is being offered without the information necessary to assess its impact on the Commonwealth.

“Some may assume the effect would also be minor. That is wrong…We now estimate that there were approximately 23,000 aliens (including illegals) residing in the Commonwealth at the end of 2008. Unlike our U.S. citizen population, most of these aliens are adults. Most of these aliens, but perhaps not all, were present in the CNMI on May 8, 2008, the date of enactment of the federalization law, and therefore would meet one of the requirements of H.R. 1466 to gain the bill’s preferred status for parents of U.S. citizen children,” he said.

Fitial also reiterated that when the Commonwealth controlled its own immigration, it only admitted alien workers on a temporary basis while they remained employed, and unemployed aliens were repatriated. He said the CNRA and the false promise of improved status changed all that.

“When the garment manufacturers closed down because of changes in WTO [World Trade Organization] rules, the Commonwealth repatriated over 16,000 alien workers beginning in 2005. After the federalization law was enacted in 2008, some federal officials promised a path to U.S. citizenship for aliens who had U.S. citizen children or who had lived in the Commonwealth for several years. This gave aliens a strong incentive to stay in the CNMI rather than return home,” he said.

The CNMI House of Representatives yesterday tried to forge a last-minute resolution opposing H.R. 1466 but Rep. Ray Basa’s H.R. 17-56 was tabled off to another day following an emotional debate that was mostly against the resolution.

He said the bill will be unfair to long-term foreign workers, including those who have legally been in the CNMI for over 20 years, for example, and do not have U.S. citizen children.

Sablan’s H.R. 1466 proposes a “CNMI-only resident status” for immediate relatives of U.S. citizens as of May 8, 2008, and continuing to be on the islands, CNMI permanent residents, those born in the CNMI between Jan. 1, 1974 and Jan. 9, 1978, and the spouses or children, “as defined in section 101(b)(1) of the Immigration and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1101(b)(1)), of an alien described in subclauses (I) or (II).”